Final Terror_Part eleven: The Tradition
by Rjartty
Summary: It's a bit shorter than my others, the next part is longer and more exciting...


# **_The Final Terror series_**

# _**Author's note: At the begining of the each part of the story, before the title, there is a part written out in red, this gives you a hint or an opening to what is going to be involved, it is very indirect and may indicate what would happen in the other parts. **_

**_Brief recap on what happened; The Animorphs were headed to the Andalit home world. They had the trial and uh, that's all of what actually happened. The next part (part twelve) is going to be much more exciting than this part...I'm just warming up for the next 'obstacle' the Animorphs are going to face, this time, it's a very tough one... _**

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# _R__ead and enjoy! _

**[PART ELEVEN]**

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# _Final Terror_

# _ A family tradition...a ritual of promised death... _

# _**PART ****ELEVEN**_

# _The Tradition_

# Chapter Forty 

**_~Ax~_**

There it was. 

I thought that I would never come to see it again. 

Home. 

The fighter landed a distance away from my family scoop, I thanked the officer and hopped out of the hatch. 

I trotted on safe, secure land, I tasted the grass that I grew on. I smiled as I saw the familiarity of the stream that ran across the blue green grass. 

_He's not here anymore. _

I trotted past a Therant tree and touched it's smooth bark. 

_He is truly gone, I will never see him again._

I jumped over the stream, I smiled to myself, I used to fail that jump. 

_He would be walking along side me, sure-footed, strong…just like out of an Andalite myth. _

I walked to Hala Fala, a very old tree, our guide tree. 

_It's only me now, it's my tree, not ours. But how I wish it were still ours. _

I placed my hand on its bark. 

_Elfangor is gone._

I felt a wave of pain. It never really occurred to me, not on Earth anyway. But now, seeing home, the realization struck me deeply. 

Home had always been my parents, Elfangor and me. That was changing. 

I pressed my face against the tree and closed my eyes tight. 

_I wish he were still here. Elfangor is not dead is he? _

But he is. And all because of the Yeerks. 

I pushed the anger away and started to make my way towards my family's scoop, they didn't know I had arrived, they had not noticed the fighter, they were not informed. 

And I hadn't wanted them to; I needed a little time to think. And that time, this little time of peace was going to end, I was going to have to face reality, I was going to get the cold harsh reality enter not just me, but my parents as well. 

It's one thing hearing that your brother or your eldest son had been killed at war, it's another thing facing and accepting the reality. 

Ahead I saw a female Andalite tending the grass around the scoop. My hearts leapt. I ran towards her. 

The Andalite female heard my approach, Whose there? 

I didn't answer, just walked into view. 

Aximilli! 

My mother ran to me, when she reached me she pressed her forehead against mine. Mother, I am back. 

I see that Aximilli. She laughed. 

Forlay? I heard the familiar thought speak voice of my father call. 

Noorlin! Aximilli had come home. 

I heard the dull thudding of my father's hooves. Aximilli-kala! The military had not notified us of your coming. 

No, I said, They did not; I wanted it to be a surprise. 

We also have a little surprise for you, Aximilli. My mother said, smiling at me. 

You do? I asked, looking puzzled. 

I wouldn't call it a 'little surprise', My father grumbled, So to speak, it's his size, but his capacity borders the words big and huge. 

Hoorian is a hand full. My mother laughed. 

What are you talking about? I asked, completely bewildered. 

But before my parents could answer me, I heard someone galloping in our direction in a somewhat fast speed. That person was also being noisy about it. 

A small blue figure darted from amidst the low trees of the southern part of our scoop. It was an Andalite child. He halted a few feet away from me and swiveling his eyestalks at my parents while studding me with his main eyes. 

Is that Aximilli? He asked, So, _he's_ suppose to be my bigger brother? 

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# Chapter Forty-One

**_~Tobias~_**

"So you see, it wasn't my fault, I swear, Jake listen-" Marco protested. 

"I thought you agreed that you would leave Rachel alone." Jake groaned. "I mean, you people were okay when we were at the trial, why did you screw up in the hearing?" 

"I didn't do anything really, but-" 

I flew out f hearing range, flew higher up into a deep golden sky. It was silent. And it looked like a gentler form of Earth. 

Here was a difference, here is where the Hawk wins, no eagles, no raccoons, no bobcats or any other sort of higher predator, here is a place with no war, no predators, no blood slain every day. It was weird. 

Rachel is still giving me the cold shoulder treatment, but I suppose she'll give up later, she'll get bored. 

Ax went to see his family, we're suppose to come with him tomorrow, or at least Jake and I. 

I'm not supposed to say that Ax and his family are my relatives. I promised that to the council members. So simply, I would just be the dumb human kid who stayed for more than two hours in a morph, that's right. 

I spread my wings further apart as a beautiful thermal helped me reach higher skies. Here in my own world, my privacy, away from troubled thoughts, I'll fly, always. 

I didn't tell Rachel that, I still hadn't, I don't know when I will tell her that. Maybe I wouldn't. Maybe she'll convince me to stay as human forever. 

Then my flying days would be over. 

I drifted towards trees and saw that a couple of local Andalites were looking up at me. 

I landed on a nearby tree branch. They trotted over. Each looked a little older than Ax. 

One of them said. You are one of the humans, am I correct? 

Yes. I answered. 

Another looked at me curiously Then why don't you stay in your human form? 

I turned my fierce gaze at him, Because my form is no longer human. 

You are the _nolthlit_? The first one asked, surprised. 

Yes I am. I answered felling a little annoyed. 

I wasn't aware that one of the humans in the group of morph capable humans was trapped in a form of a bird. 

I'm not any 'bird' I'm a bird of prey, there's a difference. 

That word again. A Difference. A difference between bird and bird of prey, a difference between bird of prey and human, a difference of staying human than resuming the form of a bird, a difference that kept Rachel from truly liking me. 

Yes. There is. The third mused. 

I flapped away and rejoined my group. It seems that there is no real escape from troubled thoughts; it'll come to you anyway. And you'll have t face it. 

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# Chapter Forty-Two

**_~Jake~_**

I had a headache, and my best friend wasn't at all helping me. 

It's no big deal really, but that quite changed when I started hallucinating. Like when I created a whatever-its-name rip, the time rift or whatever it was. Only the hallucinations had nothing to do with time, it was a mixture or reality, memory and nightmare.

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_Dark, very dark. Dark in a way that made you feel blind, dark in a way that made you think that color never really existed. _

_It was a huge place I could feel that, the empty feeling, and the little dying breeze. The breeze carried a sent of death. _

_It was cold, so cold that breathing the air made your throat swell with pain. Cold that you'd want to trade your lungs for fire. _

_And the silence, a silence that made you want to scream to end it, a silence that would make your head explode. _

_I just stood there, wondering why I was here and what I was to do, I mean it felt like reality…but it wasn't, it didn't have the dream like quality you'd expect. _

_I pinched myself. _

_"Ow!" _

_Nope, that was real pain. Or, real enough. I looked around trying to pierce the darkness- _

"Hey, you listening to me?" Marco complained. "Because I've been talking my head off for like, ten minutes and- oh, nice of you to join us Tobias- and I was wondering if you had the speck of-" 

Quit it already. Tobias laughed. 

"Hey I wasn't talking to you bird boy." 

Jake are you okay? You like a little pale to me. Tobias asked. 

Marco turned to look at me, "You okay man?" 

"I'm fine." I lied. 

"I didn't think my voice sounded that bad." He looked worried. 

I shoved him, "I'm fine." 

"Good, you just broke my bones." 

Marco started into this particularly boring long talk which I just completely blanked out, I had the feeling Tobias was doing the same because he kept drifting higher and higher. 

What did the hallucination mean? What did it have to do with me? Why can't I at least have a little bit of normality in my life? 

Was it anything dangerous? I couldn't be sure, nothing had actually happened. This was the third time I hallucinated. All of them were in the same place, next time, I think that I'm going to explore the place, or maybe put a matchbox with me so I could start a fire… 

Wait a second, a matchbox? I don't think that the normal Andalite family would keep a matchbox with them…or maybe I could take a shredder… I've never held one before, but I don't think it's that complicated to use. 

The silence of the place…it was uncanny, I mean. I could feel that I wasn't in an open-air field; the place must have been as big as a football field…Maybe it was smaller? 

That wasn't my priority, the big question was whether or not the place was a danger threat. Should I tell my friends? Or was it just stupid? 

Marco stopped yapping and he looked at me, "Jake, at least tell me you aren't listening to me, so I could shut up." 

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# Chapter Forty-Three 

**_~Ax~_**

I was shocked, obviously. I had not even seen the possibility that I would have come home to see a younger sibling. It was unexpected. 

So, what do you in the military? He asked me eagerly, once we had left my parents, no, our parents. Did you get to kill a Yeerk with your tail blade?! 

I stared at him, War is not all about killing Yeerks with your blade. 

But did you? Did you? 

Did I what? I said, feeling slightly annoyed. 

Kill a Yeerk!? With your tail blade? 

You mean host? 

Hoorian's eye stalks swiveled up to look at me, we were walking side by side. What kind of hosts? 

I shrugged, Taxxons mostly, Hork-Bajir- 

Hork-Bajir! He gasped, he stopped walking and looked at me with all of his eyes, You _fought_ a Hork-Bajir? 

He sounded awed. I never saw a Hork-Bajir for real; I mean I've seen life-sized holograms – and they're huge! -When we were touring the Gallery of Alien Forms. But actually met a _real_ Hork-Bajir… 

I understand but- 

So, you killed one or not? He interrupted. 

Why are you so eager on the question? I snapped. 

He shrugged Gleeb says his brother killed dozens! All in tail combat! All on his own! Can you imagine that? 

That is quite impossible, your little friend must have been exaggerating. I stated feeling slightly amused. 

But, Gleeb says that- 

No matter what this Gleeb says, I said, I tell you that it is just impossible to kill a dozen Hork-Bajir, one or two is a match for an average warrior- 

So you did kill a Hork-Bajir! He shrieked, What did it feel like? I bet you were proud, I would have been anyway, you know what I want to be when I grow up? 

I have no idea. I said wearily. 

I'm going to be a warrior, Aximilli, a hero, _just _like you. 

Looking at Hoorian I felt a sharp pang of pain. A painful memory had come back to me. 

Far off in my imagination, I heard a young determine voice deep within me echo, I'm going to be a warrior, Elfangor, a hero, _just _like you. 

**_To be continued... ... ... _**


End file.
